Collin Gosselin, the former reality TV star known for TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8, has opened up about the fight that ended up with his mother sending him to a behavioral facility at age 12.
Collin is set to publish his memoir, In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood, on October 13, and the allegation was revealed in excerpts from it.
Highlights
- Collin Gosselin revealed the reason that led to his mother sending him to a behavioral facility at age 12.
- He had previously accused her of overmedicating him and restrained him with zip ties in a basement.
- While his mother has denounced the allegations, Collin’s father appeared to corroborate them.
Previously, he had accused his mom of subjecting him to myriad physical and mental torments, including binding him with zip ties as a child and force-feeding him a “cocktail of powerful antipsychotics.”
Kate denied the allegations, once saying that Collin “was placed in the facility following years of outpatient treatment” for mental illness.
Collin Gosselin has accused his mother of valuing career pursuits over his well-being
Image credits: collingosselin1
Jon & Kate Plus 8 aired from 2007 to 2009.
Following the couple’s divorce in December 2009, the series was rebranded as Kate Plus 8 and continued airing until 2017.
Collin, in a September 2025 interview with the US Sun, said he was “stubborn enough” to question his mom’s desire to continue filming for TV when their family had fallen apart.
Image credits: kateplusmy8
“That questioning led me later to not wanting to be on camera, and that really k**led her,” he added.
He went on to hypothesize that his mother institutionalized him after his rebellion because it was “easier to sign a work permit for seven children who are voluntary instead of seven children who are voluntary and one who is involuntary.”
Image credits: collingosselin1
Collin also revealed that while he was at the behavioral facility for two years between 2016 and 2018, he was visited by his mother only once for “probably 20 minutes,” during which she blamed him for several problems.
He recalled being accused of breaking their family and being told that his siblings “want nothing to do” with him.
The interview has been published in its entirety in Collin’s upcoming book.
During his appearance on 2023’s Dark Side of the 2000s, meanwhile, Collin claimed he was sent to the behavioral facility because he had started telling people about what he was being put through at home, and his mom “caught wind of that.”
“She had to put me somewhere where I wouldn’t be able to get the secrets out,” he said.
Kate has consistently claimed that Collin’s mental illness was the reason she sent him away
Image credits: Getty/Donna Svennevik
“My son Collin, whom I love with all my heart, has received multiple psychiatric diagnoses over the years,” Kate said in a 2023 statement.
“For the safety of myself, his brothers and sisters, and for his own well-being, he was placed in the facility following years of outpatient treatment, which proved insufficient for his needs,” she added.
Image credits: The Sun
Kate at the time claimed that Collin “remains a very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help” and noted that his “brothers and sisters and I have not been directly involved in his life due to his history of unpredictable behavior and violent tendencies towards us.”
Image credits: Getty/Amy Sussman
After a follower expressed sympathy with Kate on Tuesday, June 30, amid the spotlight Collin’s upcoming book has cast on her, she doubled down on her assertions, saying, “Only parents who have a mentally ill child understand.”
A day earlier, she commented, “Ha,” when a follower asked whether she would entertain her son's 2025 challenge to take a lie detector test over his allegations that she zip-tied him as a child.
In a separate fan interaction, she said she “def would” have sued Collin for his alleged lies, but a lawyer advised her otherwise.
“The rules are different for public figures,” she argued.
Collin’s father appeared to corroborate the zip-tie allegation in an interview
Image credits: Oprah
In his interview with the US Sun, Collin said his mother had a room built in the unfurnished section of the storage basement of their house.
The room had cameras, a window in the corner, and it was bolt-locked from the outside.
This is where he was restrained by his mother, he claimed, adding, “It had a mattress on the floor, and that was how I lived.”
Jon, who obtained custody of Collin after his release from a behavioral facility, told the outlet he was unaware of his ex-wife’s treatment of their son for a considerable period.
Image credits: kate.gosselin
He went on to add that “the room in the basement where she kept Collin is still there.”
He knows about this because his friends’ in-laws bought the house and asked him, “Why is there a room in the basement with a bed and a lock on the outside?” he claimed,
“It must have been terrifying for [Collin],” Jon noted.
"I 100% believe him," a netizen said about Collin's claims
